Did anyone else see the repeat of the 60 Minutes piece on the use of optics by the Old Masters. In particular, the Flemish painters? It was fasinating. It is a theory developed by the contemporary painter David Hockney. To me, it makes the paintings even more intersting.

It certainly was interesting and perhaps very likely happened. NOW if they could ONLY PROVE IT. Halfpint

If I may give an alternate theory:
If you draw a picture of a face on the edge of a book, you can then distort the face by cocking the pages.

Any decent artist could then paint that face without the use of lenses.

Hi, Laurelt! Interesting thread~

Yes, I saw parts of it.

This theory is not new. If you read the New York Times bestseller (which I do recommend~) - Girl with a Pearl Earring - by Tracy Chevalier, you will find skillfully woven into this tale,that Van Eyck used "external" aids.

However, I don't believe that it was necessary for the old masters to go as far as tracing out the outlines of a chandelier, etc. via mirror images.

Consider that old masters may be skillfully copied freehand by more recent painters, I tend to believe that the old masters were able to paint theirs freehand also!

Just my opinion.

I tend to think it's true, and doesn't take anything away from the paintings.

The "smoking gun" for Hockney was all the left-handed people who suddenly populated paintings after this time.

Hmmmmmm,
Do we have any data on left handed, right handed and ambidexterous people back then?

I note that a hand saw is ambidexterous, but a power saw is righthanded.

I think Hockney looked at lots of paintings and in the "befores", most people were depicted holding glasses, etc., in their right hands. In the paintings "after", most were left-handed, with the change occuring at the same time paintings magically became more "realistic", for lack of a better word.

Jason is correct--not a new theory. It is almost more a question of the perfect perspective than the "photographic" reproduction.